In “Lightning Bolt,” the opening track from his previous album, Scrappy Happiness (2012), Joel Plaskett sings, “This is our only chance/ For some happenstance.” Now, on the verge of turning 40, the Nova Scotian rock veteran has decided to keep the temporal meditations coming on his latest album, Joel Plaskett[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Iran gets spaghetti westernized in latest film
Director Ana Lily Amirpour is billing A Girl Walks Home at Night Alone as Iran’s first vampire spaghetti western, as though vampire spaghetti western is a popular genre in Hollywood. While entirely in Farsi and featuring an Iranian cast, the film was shot in southern California, which barely passes for Iran. The[Read More…]
Pop rhetoric: #sixseasonsandamovie: Community’s self-fulfilling prophecy
Depending on how you look at it, the fact that Community will premiere its sixth season on Yahoo! Screen today is either an astonishing achievement or a preordained inevitability. On one hand, the unconventional sitcom has been fighting off (and eventually succumbed to) cancellation since 2011. Yet, while Community may[Read More…]
Deep Cuts: Creepy Love Songs
Run For Your Life Artist: The Beatles Album: Rubber Soul Year: December 3, 1965 When a song begins with “I’d rather see you dead little girl/ Than to see you with another man,” it’s off to a rocky start. Backed by surprisingly upbeat accompaniment, John Lennon spouts harrowing paranoia in[Read More…]
What’s happening in Montreal
THEATRE — Hosanna Talented and controversial Montreal writer Michael Tremblay’s famous story of gender identity, sexuality, and struggle comes back to the stage in Montreal. Tuesday, March 17 to Sunday, March 29 at 8 p.m. at Mainline Theatre (3997 Blvd Saint-Laurent). Student tickets are $15. MUSIC — Rep[Read More…]
It feels good to let go
Co-produced by legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (of Volver (2006) fame), Wild Tales will make you laugh, shake your head, and turn to the stranger next to you to make eye contact. In his first feature-length film, Argentinian director Damián Szifron threads the common theme of revenge through six disconnected[Read More…]
Album Review: Modest Mouse – Strangers to Ourselves
A long time ago, we lost sight of something fundamental: The connection we had to the natural world has been severed—maybe permanently—and humanity has been left to suffer as prisoners to the cerebral and abstract. This is what Modest Mouse’s first album in eight years, Strangers to Ourselves, argues. [Read More…]
Album Review: Will Butler – Policy
Many people will recognize the name Will Butler from the popular and successful Canadian rock outfit, Arcade Fire. Policy is Butler’s first departure from his role as a multi-instrumentalist in the indie rock group. The first track on the album, “Take My Side,” leads the album off with a burst[Read More…]
Deep Cuts: Songs called “Shine a Light”
“Shine a Light” Artist: The Rolling Stones Album: Exile on Main St. Released: May 12, 1972 Though the Rolling Stones’ 1972 double album Exile on Main St. is now considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time, its penultimate track, “Shine a Light,” with its groovy, honky-tonk[Read More…]
Album Review: Skrillex and Diplo – Jack Ü
Collaborations between established artists have given us some of the most interesting and enjoyable music of the last decade. The combination of the visions of two musicians often leads to the creation of a new and distinct sound that would otherwise have been unachievable for either independently. Diplo and Skrillex’s[Read More…]
